hitting were emp In fact, he added, it became evident even before the bombing that troops of the Northern Alliance had moved into many of the unused T aliban camps. The Alliance soldiers came up with a novel way of alerting American planners to their new location, the officer said: "They walked around holding up white sheets so when the satellites came by they're saying, 'Hey; we're the good guys.' " T he American military response has triggered alarm in the international oil community and among intelligence officials who have been briefed on a still secret C.I.A. study, put together in the mid-eighties, of the vulnerability of the Saudi fields to terrorist attack. The re- port was "so sensitive," a former C.I.A. officer told me, "that it was put on typed " d h ' paper, an not Into t e agencys com- puter system, meaning that distribution was limited to a select few. According to someone who saw the report, it con- cluded that with only a small amount of explosives terrorists could take the oil fields off line for two years. The concerns, both in America and in Saudi Arabia, about the security of the fields have become more urgent than ever since September 11th. A former high -level intelligence official depicted the Saudi nùers as nervously "sitting on a keg of dynamite"-that is, the oil re- serves. "They're petrified that some- body's going to light the fuse." "The United States is hostage to the stability of the Saudi system," a promi- nent Middle Eastern oil man, who did not wish to be cited by name, told me in a recent intervie "It's time to start fac- ing the truth. The war was declared by bin Laden, but there are thousands of bin Ladens. They are setting the game- the agenda. It's a new form of war. This fabulous military machine you have is completely useless." The oil man, who has worked closely with the Saudi lead- ership for three decades, added, "People like me have been deceiving you. We talk about how you don't understand Islam, but it's a vanilla analysis. We try to please you, but we've been aggrieved for years." The Saudi regime "will explode in time," he said. "It has been playing a del- icate game." As for the terrorists respon- sible for the September 11th attacks, he said, "Now they decide the timing. If they do a similar operation in Saudi Ara- bia, the price of oil will go up to one hundred dollars a barrel"-more than four times what it is toda)T. In the nineteen-eighties, in an effort to relieve political pressure. on the re- gime, the Saudi leadership relinquished some of its authority to the mutawwa'in and permitted them to have a greater role in day-to-day life. One U.S. government Saudi expert complained last week that religious leaders had been allowed to take control of the press and the educational system. "Today; two-thirds of the Saudi Ph.D.s are in Islamic studies," a former Presidential aide told me. There was lit- tle attempt over the years by American diplomats or the White House to moder- ate the increasingly harsh rhetoric about the U.S. "The United States was caught up in private agreements"-with the Saudi princes-"while this shit was spewing in the Saudi press," the former aide said. "That was a huge mistake." A senior American diplomat who served manyyears in Saudi Arabia recalled his foreboding upon attending a training exercise at the kingdom's most presti- gious military academy; in Riyadh: "It was hot, and I watched the cadets doing drills. The officers were lounging inside a suradiq' --a large pavilion-"with cold drinks, calling out orders on loudspeakers. I thought to myse How many of these young men would follow and die for these officers?"The diplomat said he came away from his most recent tour in Saudi Arabia convinced that "it wouldn't take too much for a group of twenty or thirty fundamentalist enlisted men to take charge. Howwould the kingdom deal with the shock of something rutWess, small, highly motivated, and of great velocity?" There is little that the United States can do now, the diplomat said. "The Saudis have been indulged for so many decades. They are so spoiled. They've al- ways had it their wa)T. There's hardlyany- thing we could say that would impede the 'majestic instancy' of their progress. We're their janissaries." He was refer- ring to the captives who became élite troops of the Ottoman Empire. "The policy dilemma is this," a senior general told me. "How do we help the Saudis make a transition without throw- ing them over the side?" Referring to young fundamentalists who have been demonstrating in the Saudi streets, he said, "The kids are bigger than the Dadd)T." . A POSTER Fa R THE NEW MILLENNIUM . .$".t ';'-, .:. - ....;. ,_,, r ' I ,. ..{ .......j ,." : . "-'... ' _, '. ",'; '(!.' , 'Y , ' , ' ,., ".,' ': ,{, ' ' /." ( , l.: ',' ' ,-" \ .. "I;" I .. ., '. . ,,-, .," """::' ,'..', tIir:. '" ".....',.;...,i ./: 1. ,;,. , t ," .. '-'I '.^ " " ": :,'",,'....\ .. :-:':"'...' " Jl, , ',':; .,.J, , .... ...., .., .:"!. ì'" ... ,'I, . .." ": "" . ';'", :,;.', KNOW THYSELF ( 1mi'--' '15 ttL! 11 ' l lÇ i.)IW JIt'r..WIJ h;nub/, \... '-l:' , C " ' , "' j ' l ,'Nnuflt l\ tMn- ,"''''Wlhi (,l, , .....' I ' .( '-' f 1\'1I.'V---- 1/ LOVE 15 À-LL * À-LL 15 EN E R..GY ENER..GY 15 ETER..NITY * ETER..NITY 15 NOW NOW 15 ÀLL * À-LL 15 LOVE" <<<<<< 0 >>>>>> This unique print is 39 1/2" x 27" and will be available for a limited time at $19.95 + $5.00 S&H http://www.omniion.com or OMNIION 30765 Pacific Coast Hwy. 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